"Amir E. Aharoni" amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il wrote:
[…]
Sometimes it is, but there is something much bigger: There are many languages that
- are alive in speech (and possibly in writing)
- are not in danger of extinction
- have a large number of monolingual speakers (let's say 100,000+)
If there is no substantial Wikipedia in such a language, these people can't read Wikipedia in *any language* because they are monolingual. Most likely they cannot read any any encyclopedia in any language. They need a Wikipedia not in order to preserve the language, but to have access to *any* encyclopedic knowledge.
I speak a revitalized language, and I'm very well aware of its history. Language preservation and revitalization are lovely things. But it's not the main point of what Wikimedia does.
"Need a Wikipedia" sounds like a great idea when you are selling Wikipedias, but for progress, betterment of humani- ty, sustainable development, etc. I think teaching those monolingual speakers a second language (for example English) is far preferable as it not only enables them to access to a few hundred or thousand articles someone paid to have trans- lated, but all articles of the English Wikipedia, plus every English article, every English book, every English blog, ev- ery English video on the InterNet.
It also grows them not only intellectually, but also removes economical barriers for trading with other groups.
Tim